Detroit Tigers' Victor Martinez finds positive in lost season, calls it 'the best year of my life'

Victor Martinez worked out with the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday and said he felt great.AP File Photo

LAKELAND, Fla. -- Victor Martinez did not play a single game in 2012.

Martinez tore his left anterior cruciate ligament during an offseason workout and missed the entire season. He worked hard to rehabilitate his knee, but he was unable to return. He was forced to watch from the sidelines as his teammates advanced to the World Series. It killed him that he couldn't play.

There is little doubt that it was the worst year of his baseball career.

But Martinez says it was the best year of his life.

"This year was weird," he said after a workout Tuesday morning. "But at the end, I'm going to tell you, it was the best year of my life. I had the time that I never had before to spend with my family, my kids. I was able to go to bed and wake up with them every single day."

Martinez was able to watch his son, Victor Jose, play baseball and his daughter, Maria, participate in cheerleading and dance. He got to enjoy becoming a father again as his wife gave birth to a second daughter just two weeks ago.

Martinez enjoyed a year with his family that he wouldn't have had without the injury. Still, it killed him to not be able to play the game he loves.

Martinez said there was a reason he made just two short visits to Detroit during the 2012 season: He couldn't stand being around the team and not being able to play.

"The first time I went, I was barely walking and I did a
really stupid thing," he said. "I grabbed a bat and started taking some swings by
myself. I didn't have permission yet. That tells you. I can't just go to
the field and watch them play. I just can't."

Martinez, known as a positive presence in the clubhouse, was missed by his teammates both on and off the field. But Tigers manager Jim Leyland left
little doubt about where he missed Martinez the most.

"His
presence at the plate has been the most impressive thing for me,"
Leyland said. "He's a great guy and he's a great teammate and I could go
into all those adjectives, but what I like about Victor the most is
those RBIs and hitting .300 and getting big hit after big hit. I'm
not going to be phony about it. That's why I love Victor."

Martinez wore a knee brace Tuesday, which also marked the first time he
had put on a Tigers uniform since the end of the 2011 season. He said the brace "might just be a mental thing" and hopes to shed it in the coming weeks. He worked out and took swings from both sides of the plate and said he felt great.

Martinez said it was difficult to watch the Tigers compete in the playoffs last year while he was rehabbing at home in Orlando. But he is pretty sure he will get another chance to win it all with the Tigers.

"I'm 100 percent confident the guys are going to give me a chance to play in the World Series," he said.

A World Series title might make 2013 the best year of his career. Still, it might not make for a better year than Martinez just had with his family.

"I don't
think anything's going to beat that," Martinez said. "Sooner or later, I'm going to
retire, and those are the people who are going to stay with me."